Stepping back and in: finding nourishment and inspiration through the foundational practices of Yoga and Zen.

The retreat begins with a 4 pm yoga session in the Green Gulch zendo followed by meditation, dinner in the dining room, and an evening gathering in the Wheelwright Center.

On Friday and Saturday, we will have two full days of practice together, with time for enjoying the beauty of Green Gulch Farm. The morning session with Linda will include sitting meditation, dharma talks, and a chance to discuss and clarify the teaching and one's own practice. Patricia will lead two yoga sessions on those days.

The morning yoga classes will include explorations in stabilizing and realigning the body through simple movements aimed at releasing compensatory habit patterns and reintroducing stability where it is lacking. Through this work, we awaken to a more refined awareness of our relationship with gravity and notice greater freedom from the limitations and pain caused by misalignments. Yoga poses, as well as the posture of meditation, become more naturally approachable and can exert their energetic influence unimpeded. Insight into and direct experience of our more subtle and expansive layers of existence are accompanied by a thoroughly grounded sense of being alive. We are awake, present and capable of stepping forward to offer ourselves in whatever way is needed in the moment.

Afternoon yoga sessions will be more restorative and contemplative in nature and will include working with the breath and some meditation.

Sunday morning, after Zazen and a restorative yoga practice, we will end with a tea ceremony and lunch.

Retreat Fee: $240 ($204/member). Some partial scholarships available. Please note that the retreat fee does not include accommodations.

Registration and Overnight Accommodations: To register and to reserve accommodations, call our toll free number (888.743.9362) or our local number (415.475.9362).

Patricia Sullivan Patricia’s teaching arises from 40 years of practice, and includes many streams of study. Her exploration of yoga began in 1971, and she studied in India with the Iyengars on three occasions in the 1980s. She taught Advanced Studies (teachers-in-training) throughout the 1990s and early 2000s before embarking on her own independent studies.

Eijun Linda Cutts (Central Abbess)Eijun Linda Cutts came to San Francisco Zen Center in 1971, was ordained as a priest in 1975, and has resided at Green Gulch Farm since 1993. In 1996 Linda received dharma transmission from Tenshin Reb Anderson. Having served as Abbess of San Francisco Zen Center from 2000 to 2007, she was appointed Abiding Abbess of Green Gulch Farm Zen Center in 2010, and Central Abbess of SFZC in 2014. She continues to teach and lead practice periods and retreats at Tassajara, Green Gulch, Mexico, Italy and elsewhere, and has been leading Yoga-Zen retreats and workshops for many years.